Visiting Munich’s other team (TSV 1860 Munich – Karlsruher SC 2:1)

While I was visiting my sister in Munich ver the weekend I took the chance to take the trip to the Allianz Arena, the home ground of Bayern Munich and TSV 1860. Since the First Division of the german Bundesliga is still in its summer break we were watching 1860 take on Karlsruher SC. Not your highlight match, but professional football nonetheless.

The Arena is located on the outskirts of Munich and because we went by car it was pretty easy to reach. Parking is always an issue and we had to pay € 8.- which by German standards is a lot. Tickets were € 19.90 a piece and you also had to buy one of those chip cards which the use nowadays for the food stands inside the stadium. That’s right, in most German stadiums you are requiered to get a card, sometimes you even have to pay a deposit fee (which you don’t have to do at Munich’s arena, so that was positive).

We got tickets for the 2nd deck and those seats were pretty spectacular. Great view of the whole field, right above the supporter’s section. On television the stadium looks rather plain, but when you are actually there the stands look pretty steep which should, when sold out, work in favour of a pretty good atmosphere. Still Bayern rarely manages to capture the crowd and turn the place into an inferno. Same with 1860, although they simply draw to little people. That match’s attendance was 26.600 which should, generously speaking, count as half full, since seasts in the 3rd and upper deck were not sold. The acoustic seems to have its flaws because although we were able to clearly hear the away support which was located right across the stadium from us, the home supporters whose terraces were below us, were not nearly as loud.

During halftime we were trying to get something to eat and the usual german halftime foot is the „Bratwurst“. Too bad the stand I was lining up for was only serving pizza. We managed to get three bratwursts and a couple of drinks, which cost us around € 19.-. The „Bratwurst“ was great though and worth the wait.

All in all an enjoyable and stress-free experience, albeit a rather expensive one. Tickets, food and parking accounted for around € 100.-, a price I’m only willing to pay once in a while. Plus the match itself wasn’t very exciting. 1860 beat Karlsruhe 2:1 after suffering some poor refereeing decisions. Net up will be a visit to Munich’s old ground „Stadion Grünwalder Straße“ which is only open for amateur football nowadays, but should be a lot more charming than the sterile arena.